Syracuse and the rest of the Northeast are battening down as a major winter storm marches in with heavy snow Thursday and bitter cold on Friday.

Snow already had started falling across most of the Northeast by Thursday morning, but the heaviest snow was expected to strike after sunset and continue through the night, Kim Buttrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., told Reuters.

The storm is expected to snarl traffic on Interstate 95 between New York and Boston. At noon, the state's 511NY.org website reported numerous accidents on the New York State Thruway and icy, snowy conditions along the length of U.S. Route 11.

The storm already had resulted in the cancellation of about 1,123 U.S. flights and delays to 1,567 others, Reuters said, citing the FlightAware air travel tracking website. Chicago's O'Hare International and Newark's Liberty International Airport were most heavily affected.

Six to 12 inches of snow is expected to fall in a broad belt from northern Ohio to Nova Scotia, according to AccuWeather.com.

Syracuse and Central New York are in the midst of that band, which extends as far north as the central Adirondacks and northern New Hampshire and as far south as northern Pennsylvania, metro New York and central New Jersey.

The Weather Channel, which has dubbed the storm "Winter Storm Hercules," is predicting 8 inches to a foot of snow in the roughly the same region.

Extensive areas along the fringes of the main band could see 3 to 6 inches of snow.

Heavier snowfall, up to 18 inches worth, is expected to bomb localized areas in Massachusetts, including Boston, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The storm also is expected to usher in the coldest temperatures the region has seen in five years, AccuWeather said. The National Weather Service said Friday's high in Syracuse will barely climb above zero. With the wind factored in, it's going to feel like it's somewhere between 15 below zero and 20 below zero across much of Central and Northern New York, AccuWeather said.

"It will be far from the worst storm to ever hit the area, but people should be prepared for flight delays and cancellations because of direct and indirect impacts from the far-reaching storm. Some roads may even close for a time," AccuWeather expert Alex Sosnowski said.

In New York City, the storm was presenting new Mayor Bill de Blasio with his first weather challenge, the Wall Street Journal said.

"We are going to be ready. . . We are 100% ready," de Blasio told the newspaper shortly before he took the oath of office Wednesday.

It likely was Boston Mayor Tom Menino's last big storm as Boston's mayor -- he leaves office on Monday after two decades. Boston's school were ordered closed on Friday as the storm closed in on the city.